Service narratives

It can be challenging to imagine how this new operating model will work. To help with this, aspirational, end-state narratives have been developed to illustrate how faculty, staff and students could interact with and experience various functions and services within the new operating model. 

Student support

Charlotte is a second-year international Sociology student. She is struggling with the workload and constantly feels like she is letting down her family, who have made substantial sacrifices to get her a world class education. Charlotte goes to the Student Service Centre to seek academic support.

After a few minutes, she is seen by Chris who is an Advisor. She starts asking Chris about academic support, but it’s obvious she is in distress. Chris and all the front-desk staff have been trained in mental health first aid; he can see that Charlotte might need academic support in the future but that she needs mental health support now. Chris walks Charlotte to a side room and works with her to deescalate the situation. He also finds out when a counsellor, who is based in the same building, will be available to provide more specialized support.

Ten minutes later, Jo, one of the Counsellors arrives to help de-escalate the situation. After 15 minutes speaking with Jo, Charlotte is feeling more stable. Jo has Chris find a time when she can start longer sessions with Charlotte. Chris also books Charlotte in for an academic skills session in two weeks’ time. He also finds the contact details for an Academic Advisor in the Faculty of Arts and books a time for her to speak with Charlotte.

Staff expense claims

Rachael is a staff member in the Faculty of Native Studies. She knows it will be valuable to attend the International Conference on Indigenous Peoples next year and applies to her supervisor for funding. The Faculty agrees to fund her expenses up to $500. This approval is completed within PeopleSoft by submitting a travel budget that routes to the budget owner for approval. Rachel would complete a Travel Authorization form (TAP) and generate a code for use when booking the air travel through the university booking agent. The code is automatically sent to Rachael’s email.

Rachael books everything for the conference and keeps the receipts. After the conference and when all travel has been completed, she submits the receipts through the travel and expense portal, against the expense claim that relates to the initial budget. Janine, in the Transaction Processing Hub, confirms that the expenses are within the delegation and approves the reimbursement.

New staff hires

Faculty hiring

The Department of Sociology has just hired Li Wei, a promising new post-doc. Samantha is a professor in the department, whose team Li Wei will be joining; she knows that she needs to get Li Wei ready to start in two weeks’ time, which means she needs to be added to payroll, get a desk, a computer as well as other supports. Samantha reviews her notes from when she met with Jalal, the Faculty HR Service Partner, and discussed this hire. Jalal provided the information on how to grant Li Wei access to an online portal that ‘speaks’ directly to the Transaction Processing Hub. Li Wei inputs her employment, bank details and other onboarding information. This is automatically processed and Li Wei, Samantha and Jalal all receive an email letting them know that the process is complete. The system also notifies other service areas that they will need to support Li Wei’s onboarding. Samantha gets back to addressing the revisions that she needs to complete to get her article published.